During Outages, an Agile Approach

Transcription

1 Reinventing the Customer Experience During Outages, an Agile Approach Wednesday, May 2 nd 2018 Kassidy Warren Business Delivery Manager, PSE Jamison Roof Energy and Utilities Expert,

2 Session overview Today, you will learn about: PSE s Get To Zero program to leverage leading edge technologies and analytics to reinvent customer service What reinventing the customer experience means for us The challenges we faced delivering the system (and how we overcame them) Where we are today and our key success factors 2

3 Puget Sound Energy Washington state s oldest local energy utility 1.1 million electric and 800,000 natural gas customers 3,100 employees We serve some of the most technologically advanced companies in the world

4 CEO s Challenge: Get to Zero At the program s inception we received 4 million calls That meant our customers had 4 million problems We want to: Prevent problems before they happen Notify & enable customers to easily self-serve Quickly help them when they do call In other words: Get To Zero

5 Get to Zero: Mission and vision To become our customers energy partner of choice by changing our customer and employee experiences, tightly integrating our people, processes and technology. PSE knows who I am and anticipates my needs. PSE makes and acts on commitments to its customers with confidence. I can easily locate the answers to my questions and resolve issues myself. I get the same accurate information no matter how I contact PSE and I know what to expect at every interaction. PSE will proactively inform me of things I care about through my preferred communication channel. 5

6 GTZ: Reinventing the customer experience Integrated Work Management Customer Interface Billing, Payments, Credit & Collections Data Management and Analytics Providing automated, integrated and mobile solutions for greater visibility into field operations Redesigning how customers interact with us, providing self-service options and proactive communications Identify and remove obstacles and errors in the billin & payment related business processes Redefining our data analytics and governance framework to maximize the value of data 6

7 Start small, think big, act fast

8 Starting Point: Passive Communication Tools Outage Map Outage App Facebook Twitter 8

9 We looked at industry trends 9

10 We looked at our data During outages, over 27% of customers called in more than once Our outage map was up to 45 minutes out of date 97% of customers wanted proactive outage information Customers receiving notifications have higher satisfaction Customers preferred to know when power was going to be restored, even if it meant restoration efforts would take longer 10

11 We asked the customer what they wanted #1 Being notified about outages Easy notifications and updates Having multiple phone #s / addresses and notifications about non-home locations 11

12 Our plan: proactive communications ETR Updates Send update notification when ETRs are added, removed or changed SMS Two Way Interactions Text STATUS to to get updates and OUT to report an outage Calls to Action Designing the experience to always have a resolution path 12

13 Our plan: proactive communications, continued Easy Interactions One click to report outage, report Not Out, unsubscribe Storm Mode Tailored messaging for storm situations, by region, circuit or zip code Custom Communications Send custom communications (proactive or during an event) to all customers in a order or distribution area 13

14 Our Challenges Challenge #1: Doubts Challenge #2: Poor data quality Challenge #3: The Incident Challenge #4: Our first storm 14

15 Challenge #1: Doubts It s too complex and our technical team isn t up to the challenge. We don t have enough subscribers. Our data will never be good enough. System operators will trigger incorrect notifications. Customers are going to complain. 15

16 Building credibility Meter pinging / AMR data visualization for System Operations Provide System Operations with better situational awareness Reduce calls to Call Centers from Systems Operations Predict faulty device and roll trucks more quickly 16

17 Lesson #1: Deliver iteratively to build confidence Take Baby Steps Build confidence by starting small and grow the system one feature at a time Be Persistent Always do what is right for the customer, despite internal resistance 17

18 Challenge #2: Poor data quality Inconsistent or missing information 73% Without address 54% Home phone numbers were cell phone numbers 9% Customers with cell phone numbers Multiple sources, duplicative and obsolete information 27 Sources of customer contact information 3% Duplicate customer data 82% Customer Records are inactive 18

19 Small changes with big impacts 1. Minimal Update to Preference Center Auto enrollment Easy unsubscribe Less than 2% unsubscribe rate 19

20 Small changes with big impacts 2. Outage Map Sign Ups Customers usual source for outage information Immediate 10% increase in notifications 20

21 Small changes with big impacts 3. Anonymous Reporting Improved the customer experience and increased subscription rates 21

22 Small changes with big impacts 4. Address Validation Ensuring contact information continues to be accurate 22

23 Expanding our reach through marketing 23

24 Expanding our reach through marketing 24

25 Results: Rapidly increasing subscribers System changes go live Oct 2016 Nov 2016 Dec 2016 Jan

26 Lesson #3: Making decisions easy One Common Goal Call Reduction Only develop features that reduce calls 26

27 Challenge #3: The Bainbridge Incident Bainbridge Island, west of Seattle Population: 23,000 Median Household Income: ~$96K The city had discussed setting up a municipal electric utility for two years Reliability and environmental concerns from residents 27

28 The Bainbridge Incident, mea culpa Dear PSE Customer, On behalf of PSE, I apologize for the confusion and frustration that we caused by sending you multiple inaccurate outage s. I'm part of a team at PSE that's rolling out a new outage notification system to proactively notify customers via when our system indicates your power is out. Starting Wednesday afternoon we experienced a situation which caused us to inadvertently send you multiple outage notices. We know what caused the problem and we're working on a remedy to avoid this from happening again. Until that remedy is in place, we have disabled the service to avoid further frustration. I appreciate your patience as we deploy this new feature, I hope that you will give us another chance. Sincerely, Kassidy Warren Business Delivery Manager, Puget Sound Energy 28

29 The Bainbridge Incident, the outcome This is an excellent new service we really appreciate your work I appreciate the deployment of that new technology and am confident you ll soon have it dialed in. Thanks for upgrading the system and making it better for the future! No sweat! I understand completely! Good luck! I would rather have an erroneous alert than none at all. 29

30 Lesson #3: Ensure leadership has your back Leadership Executive level support to push boundaries and challenge the norm 30

31 Challenge #4: Our first storm 265,000 notifications sent in 4 days 98 customer complaints 31

32 Storm Mode Enhancements Enhancement Custom message to targeted audience One message per account Outage reporting by text How it Applies to Storm Events Enables tailored communication during a high volume event (HVE) Enables pre-event preparatory communication Helps consolidate number of messages sent Self service mechanism for reporting outages 32

33 Storm Mode Enhancements Enhancement Get real-time updates by texting STATUS Two-click report outage in restoration/ cancellations Configurable delay before sending in secondary or nested outages How it Applies to Storm Events Self service mechanism for checking outage status Allows easy reporting of Still-Out during nested outages Modify messaging for nested outage customers 33

34 Storm Mode Enhancements 34

35 Proactively handling secondary outages Reporting a secondary outage in 10 seconds 35

36 Lesson #4: Build in structured flexibility Agile Methodology Be flexible and in constant contact break down the silos Diverse Team Operations + Call Center + Developers + Communications + Data = Creative, well rounded solutions 36

37 Think big, start small, act fast ERT updates Text Messages Outage Map Sign Ups notifications Preference Center Storm Mode Voice Notifications 37

38 70% increase in customer satisfaction! How would you rate PSE on 38

39 Compliments! 39

40 Our most recent storm Improved performance! 40

41 Key Success Factors Baby Steps (Iterative) Start small and grow the system one feature at a time Persistence Always do what is right for the customer, despite internal resistance One Common Goal Call Reduction Only develop features that reduce calls 41

42 Key Success Factors Leadership Executive level support to challenge the norm Agile Methodology Be flexible and in constant contact break down the silos Diverse Team Operations + Call Center + Web Team + Developers + Communications + Data = Creative, well rounded solutions 42

43 Your speakers Kassidy Warren Business Delivery Manager, Integrated Work Management Puget Sound Energy Jamison Roof Energy and Utilities Expert 43